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WHAT IS GOOGLE+ ? Google+ is Google’s attempt at a social network Launched in June 2011 it had 10m users within 30 days Post images, video, share content and play games – just like you would in Facebook

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WHAT IS GOOGLE+ ? Earlier this year, it had a major refresh to integrate seamlessly with: •gmail •contacts •youtube •images

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WHAT IS GOOGLE+ ? There are now over 100 million users worldwide. Despite a lot of VS VS criticism about the network, people don’t realise just how quickly Google + is growing.5 years 4.5 years 8 months It is forecast to hit 400 million users by the end of 2012.

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WHAT DOES THE UK LOOK LIKE? There are 3.5 million active users in the UK, with a strong, young male bias. Top cities: •London •Manchester •Glasgow •Edinburgh The good news (if you’re looking for a date!) is that 35% of these people are single! If you fancy your chances, 1.8% say “it’s complicated”…

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WHAT CAN YOU DO? share your thoughts via chat with statuses post links, video friends and images see what’s trending see what your friends are up to

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WHAT CAN YOU DO? CIRCLES Say “adios” to long, boring friend lists and “hola” to circles You have a circle of friends in real life so why not online? “Circling” friends revolutionised how we manage our growing friend lists We can now keep friends in many different circles and only read what that circle posts – or only post/share content with a certain group of friends

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WHAT CAN YOU DO? PLAY GAMES In August 2011, Google introduced games into Google+ Angry Birds, Crime City, Edgeworld and 13 other titles appeared as embedded games within the platform Integration of these meant that, exactly like apps in Facebook, your achievements and records could be shared with your circles

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WHAT CAN YOU DO? PHOTO GALLERIES Create photo galleries as you would in any social network and store them in the cloud (google’s servers) Have the Google+ app installed and take a picture – and it gets sent to your gallery straight away

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WHAT CAN YOU DO? HANGOUT Hangouts are what many believe are Google +’s killer app Hangouts allow you to video chat with several friends at once or, best of all, watch any video on Google+ and YouTube together with your friends Hangouts are like Skype but in Google Plus We all love Will.i.am on The Voice right? Imagine being able chat with him!

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THE BUSINESS CASEEVERYBODY’S DOING IT - it is estimated that 61 of the Top 100 brands in the US are onGoogle+.IT IS GROWING, QUICKLY – 100m in 8 months. 400m by 2012. Even with 3.5m in the UK, itis growing very, very fast.CONSUMERS EXPECT - visits to Google+ hit an average of 5.1m before brand Pages arrived.The month following this update, the average was 6.8m daily visitsFIRST MOVER – there’s still a good chance you’d be first to move in your sectorHANGOUTS – extend the reach of your brand like never before oh, and I never mentioned that the SEO benefits…

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SEO 101WHAT IS SEO? “The process of making changes to a website so that traffic from searchengines increases.”

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WHY BOTHER WITH SEO?MOVING ON UP – Optimised websites appear higher up the search resultsCONSUMER REACH – More than 1/3 of natural search users click the top resultMORE TRAFFIC – If you move from position #3 in Google to #1 you get a 300% increase inwebsite visitors (if you move from #10 to #1 it’s 1500%!)MORE SALES – Higher rankings means more visitors, which means more conversions Improved Increased More rankings traffic conversions

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WHO GOES TO THE TOP?THE SCIENCE BIT – Google uses algorithms to decide which websites should be positionedhigh up the search resultsMIXED SIGNALS – The algorithms look at different ‘signals’, including quality of contentand your inbound linking profileSOCIAL – Never used to have an impact on SEO, the past 18 months have seen it becomingincreasingly importantIT’S GOOD TO TALK – The social ‘signal’ most valued by search engines is the amount ofdiscussion and sharing around a brand’s website/links

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GOOGLE+ AND SEOIT’S ABOUT DATA – Google uses its own network to compile social data on users, doesn’thave to rely on Facebook (like Bing does)SPEAKING OF THOSE TWO – Because of its dominance in search, Google doesn’t have todirectly ‘compete’ with Facebook. Why?COMPELLING USP – One of the key benefits of Google+ is enhanced search performance forbrands who use it properly/effectivelyBASICALLY – Google has worked it so that if you do well on G+, you’ll have better SEO(and all of the benefits that go with that)

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HOW GOOGLE+ CAN HELPNEED A LEG UP? – Google+ basically gives you another route to attack page one of thesearch resultsKEY FEATURES – There are three key ways in which Google+ can help boost SEO: - PEOPLE AND PAGES - PERSONAL SEARCH RESULTS - +1 RECOMMENDATIONS

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+1 RECOMMENDATIONS• +1 recommendations that your customers make can beseen by all of their friends• There are two key benefits to this: • Improved clickthrough rate on page one

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+1 RECOMMENDATIONS• The second, more important, benefit is that +1’d sitesappear higher up the search rankings• Google search for ‘SEO Manchester’ • Results in positions #3, #5 and #10 • 30% of natural search space covered• This gives brands who are smart with G+ a significantboost in natural search

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WHAT CAN YOU DO?• Quantity: Google looks at number of shares, +1s etc• SO – encourage shares (be obvious about it too)• Create content and promotions that deserve attention• Timing is also important

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WHAT CAN YOU DO?• Quality – Google looks at interaction around yoursocial activity• SO – encourage debate among your customers• Ask questions, set interactive competitions• Again, frequency is as valuable as quantity

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IS IT ALL A BED OF ROSES?SIZE – are there enough of your audience on there…yet?TIME – circle curation takes time – you are basically doing a crm job tocategorise your fans.Posting to your Page has to be done manually – are the rewards there at themoment?Most staff have Facebook/Twitter accounts – how many have Google+ ones?Training is requiredHANGOUTS – can webcams alone do the job. Broadcast can be expensive.